1005. 
TIIE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
41 
Hope Farm Notes 
Home Again. — I left Florida the day after 
New Year's, with the mercury above 70 de¬ 
grees, and the sun so hot that we were glad to 
hunt for shade. As the train climbed up the 
country the air grow brisker, though it was 
evidently warmer than usual. I saw no snow 
south of Washington, but we finally rode into 
a rainstorm which ended in a blizzard. It 
was a rude awakening from the balmy south¬ 
ern air, and yet I must say that I enjoyed the 
sting of the cold. I drove into the Hope 
Farm gate after dark in the face of a biting 
wind, and through a big snowdrift. The old 
house certainly did look homelike. Emma 
had a hot supper of pea soup, codfish and 
cream, baked apples and bread and butter. I 
am almost ashamed to tell how many baked 
apoles I ate. If I could have had the 
Madame at the end of the table and th 
children at the side it would have been a per¬ 
fect home coming. They are better off in the 
sun than they are in the snow. Everything 
was right at home. The pullets have begun 
to lay, and Emma had a big box of eggs, al¬ 
most too precious to eat. Eggs are high now, 
and the hens will give us a little income. 
Philip has made over the barn so that every 
animal except old Frank has a box stall. The 
colts are lively as kittens. • Beauty is being 
driven, and promises to be worthy of her 
name in her performance. We are ripping 
down some old board fences that have seen 
tlielr best days, and putting wire in their 
place. As is known, I am using various 
brands of wire fence side by side, to see how 
long they will last. Thus far I don't believe 
there is an ounce of zinc used in any of the 
so-called galvanizing. Two buildings must be 
shingled this Winter, and considerable paint¬ 
ing done. We also want to clean up several 
acres of scrub land for planting apple trees 
in the Spring. Plenty to do this Winter if 
we can only have decent weather. . . . 
The snow came so early that I have been 
afraid the mice and rabbits would be at the 
young trees. I find little if any damage, but 
am sorry to find plenty of sunseald on a 
block of young apple trees. The south sides 
of these trees are turning brown, and I fear 
the bark is dead. It seems to be caused by 
sudden cold following warm, bright weather. 
These trees are on the most exposed part of 
the farm, at the top of a steep bill. We 
planted them early in November, 190.3. Some 
were killed during the hard Winter. As no 
other trees died, and as I cannot find evi¬ 
dence of sunseald elsewhere, I conclude that 
something was wrong with those trees. I 
think they were dug from the nursery row 
before they were fully ripened, and then 
fumigated. This fumigation in the Fall of 
trees with soft wood seems to weaken them 
seriously, and I do not believe these trees 
ever got over it. I hope to cut them back 
below the scalding and start them close to the 
ground, but some of them will die in spite 
of all. I should have painted them with 
limoid and kerosene. 
The Florida Farm.—C harlie is working 
away at the little place In Florida—not 
named yet. This strip of land—a little less 
than 30 acres—Hes on the shore of a large 
lake, with a small stream running through it. 
In Florida the lower lands, near water, are 
used for farming, and as such places are not 
suitable for human habitation during the hot 
and wet seasons, people usually live on the 
higher land, where the orange groves are lo¬ 
cated, and go and come from the lower farms, 
luere Is a shed on our place where we can 
store tools, but we shall not attempt to live 
there. The place has a history which is per¬ 
haps characteristic of some Florida farms. It 
was originally “Government land," well tim¬ 
bered with pine. After some years the owner 
cleared about 10 acres along the lake, and 
planted a grove of about 500 orange trees, 
lie spent much time and money on this grove, 
which at five years was full of promise. The 
freeze killed the trees to the ground before 
they made a crop. The owner was discour¬ 
aged, and did not. try to start the trees anew, 
so all that money was lost. After some years 
he went back, cleared the ground and started 
a crop of potatoes. They made a beautiful 
growth, when, late In March, "for the first 
time in 30 years,” there came a heavy late 
frost which killed the crop to the ground. 
Again the owner abandoned the land in dis¬ 
gust. After a few years more, with the re¬ 
newed courage which seems to come to the 
Florida farmer after a few mild Winters, he 
started again with a crop of strawberries. 
They were past full bloom, with a small for¬ 
tune in sight, when about 30 head of range 
cattle broke through the fence and trampled 
the whole thing into mud before they were 
discovered! That meant “three strikes and 
out." for our friend, and he quit, never caring 
to see the farm again. I bought the farm and 
Charlie will attempt to graft success upon 
the root of these failures ! 
Luck. — Gut are you not afraid of that un¬ 
lucky piece of land? Some people would say 
it was cursed, and should be left alone. I 
don't care what others say. The land is the 
best. I could find in the neighborhood. Even 
the Wire grass which grows on it is larger 
than at other places. Along the brook are 
the marks of hogs, and cattle pasture on it 
and come down to its shore to drink. Such 
animals, forced to hunt for their food, wfll 
beat any chemist in locating good soil. As 
for a “curse” upon land or “luck”—nonsense. 
Every gray-haired man knows that, there is 
nothing one-sided in life. In the end things 
are evened up. After this succession of fail¬ 
ures there is all the more reason to believe 
that a list of successes are to follow. If our 
friend had cut back bis orange trees and kept 
at them he would have had a good crop this 
year. If he had kept on planting potatoes or 
strawberries he would have surely hit one 
season that would have paid for the whole 
thing. Farming is not a gamble, but a thing 
to keep at year after year. Some of the crops 
we try to raise may be cards in a gambler's 
game, but the business of farming is to find 
some crop that is sure—make that the foun¬ 
dation and use the others for frills if need be. 
Thus Charlie was not afraid to start at the 
job on Friday. There are some pine stumps 
left. We burn rubbish against them grad¬ 
ually to work them off. The worst trouble is 
a growth of palmetto, which is grubbed out 
by the roots. Charlie will not tackle the pine 
land yet. 
A Crude Plan.—I know how foolish it 
would be for a .Terseyman to go down to Flor¬ 
ida and tell old settlers how to farm. I must 
say, however, that it Is harder to obtain defi¬ 
nite information and advice about farming in 
Florida than in any other place I ever visited. 
From the experiment station down few peo¬ 
ple seem prepared to >ay just what ought to 
be done. It seems to me that this lack of 
definite information or practical demonstra¬ 
tion hurts the State. People put work and 
money upon oranges, truck or crops which 
are at the mercy of the frost, and when these 
are lost lose everything. 
I confess my entire ignorance of Florida 
farming and then intend to go ahead and try 
a new plan. If it fails I am very willing to 
lie laughed at, for 1 have endured laughter 
before now with great cheerfulness until I 
saw It creep around to the “other side of the 
mouth.” Charlie expects to clear about five 
acres for the plow before January 15. Then 
he will plow it as best, he can, and let the 
furrows stand up to the weather. This is to 
let the sun and air in, though we may find 
this a mistake if the season is dry. We will 
find out—no one seems to know. While the 
soil is lying open Charlie will set posts around 
this field and put up six strands of barbed 
wire. This is to keep out hogs and cattle. 
By that time the disk plow will be on hand, 
and this will be run over the plowed furrow. 
I expect it to chop off roots and toss over 
and mix up the soil. We shall plant much 
the same as we do in New Jersey, except that 
the seed pieces will be smaller, the furrows 
not so deep and the seed covered lightly at 
first. Charlie wants to use 500 pounds of 
fertilizer per acre at first, 500 pounds more 
when the plants are a few inches high, and 
300 or more as the tubers begin to form. We 
shall use sulphur on the seed. Cultivation 
will be much the same as in the North. While 
the potato crop is growing Charlie will keep 
on clearing land, getting as much as possible 
ready for plowing. When the potatoes are 
out my plan is to cut the whole flgld over 
with the disk and sow a combination of 
sorghum and cow peas. If anyone knows that 
anything else will do better I would like to 
know what it. Is. My object is to cover the 
soil with a heavy crop of forage. If the 
weather is suitable I will have this stuff cut 
and cured for hay. If that is not prac¬ 
ticable we will put hogs inside the fence to 
eat the stuff down. If I can find a few likely 
heifers on the range I will buy them and put 
them on this pasture as the foundation for a 
little herd. As the cow peas are eaten down 
I hope to work over parts of the field and 
sow rape and Cow-horn turnips, to be eaten 
down by hogs. By keeping the land constant¬ 
ly employed in this way I do not see why at 
the end of the year we cannot put it into 
potatoes once more or in Bermuda onions, 
greatly improved in condition, and a good 
supply of hay or meat in addition. We shall 
experiment with Alfalfa in all sorts of ways 
until we learn how to make it grow. I have 
never been in a country where milk, butter, 
eggs and meat average higher in price during 
the Winter season. I believe we can find some 
forage that will grow every month in the 
year. With the light shelter required for ani¬ 
mals I do not see why Florida cannot become 
a good stock country. Let us think, too, how 
the use of fodder and stock will reduce the 
cost of fertilizer and improve the soil. In a 
general way that is our plan. We may be 
obliged to change it, but we will give it a 
trial at least. I have about given up my 
idea of hatching out early pullets and ship¬ 
ping them up here for Summer laying. They 
will earn more down there. We sent some 
of our pullets to Florida, and they started 
laying before their sisters at Hope Farm did. 
Would you send cattle down? 
No, unless it might be a young calf. Older 
cattle would suffer at first, and might die. 
My idea is to use the best range heifers to 
start with and a good Short-horn sire. The 
beef market in the South is good, and if we 
can get Alfalfa started beef will pay. 
u. w. c. 
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